A light Burden!

(Matthew 11:30) “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Our Christian walks leaves us in one of two three camps on a daily basis; firstly it could be filled with disappointment and failure as we find ourselves surrounded by “worldly sorrow” (on the surface it may look like repentance but is actually self-pity); secondly we could have a spring in or step and a psalm on our heart, even as we realize that in ourselves it is impossible to walk as Christ walked when He was here on earth. Grace becomes a reality and we begin to embrace the goodness of God in our lives and find ourselves thankful as we walk in His victory; in other words we look to our Saviour’s finished work and His Spirit that now lives in us which in turn enables us get through the day.  There is once again no real in-between, or is there? If I feel indifferent (believe in Christ’s dead burial and resurrection but the life I live has very little evidence to His resurrection); then I suppose, on the basis of what the scripture teachers I would be worse off. -- How so? “So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16)

When we consider this verse; -- “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:30), it gives us an inkling to what the Lord teachers us and hopefully we will grasp the lesson. I suggest we will eventually all arrive at a true understanding to this lesson, so long as He (the good Shepherd) is leading us we will ultimately learn, I am convinced of it. Why? Well there can never be any greater teacher, than the Lord Jesus and if He has saved you, He will finish the work. Some are slower than others (I included), but He is far greater than my or any other opposition that He may encounter along the way. Best you believe this! “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” (Romans 4:5)

And just as my friend and brother Malcolm took a while to arrive at this conclusion, I too confer and I quote, “it’s taken a while, but I am now fully persuaded that living the Christian life is not humanly possible.” I think I know what he is saying, but I know what this means to me. We will hopefully get him to give us some input in the comments column.

For many years I and many other Christians have struggle with the carnal man and the spiritual man as seen in Romans chapter 7 and 8. But when the goodness of God the Holy Spirit turns on the light switch to this teaching and we get our suppositions out the way and we stick to what the texts is teaching us then the Christian walk becomes manageable. Let me explain; it is impossible for a man or woman to walk as Christ walked in the flesh both before and after salvation. We have inherited an enemy that lives and feeds off us, it is sin! When God created the man and the woman, he gave them trees in the garden to eat from, there was a “tree of live” and there was a tree of the “knowledge of good and evil” which was forbidden. Now when Eve ate form the tree of the “knowledge of good and evil” what we tend to overlook is that although sin found life in man it brought with it knowledge, not only of that which was evil but also that which is good. Now we know that God’s law is good, we know it is wrong to steal and as a young child when we lied to our parents no one needed to tell us we were wrong, we understood it from our conscience that we had just done was wrong. Here we have proof that our consciousness is alive to both good and evil. Now once they had eaten from that tree God acted quickly as He placed a cherub and a flaming sword in the garden to protect and stop them from eating from the “tree of life”. Why? Sin was now alive and before sin had been dealt with, life for mankind was no longer an option, death now lived!

It is only through what our Lord and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ achieved on Calvary that now removed the flaming sword and the cherubim from the tree of life. How was this achieved? Christ relinquished His authority and left the portals of heaven under the wish of His Father (God) and God the Spirit impregnated a virgin woman (Mary) with God’s seed and a child was born in a manger in Bethlehem. He grew up like any other child, he was subject to his parent’s authority, he went through puberty etc. Throughout the duration of his life He never once broke one of God’s commands, He lived a sinless life and therefore was now worthy to be sacrificed and conquer sin. It only ever needed to happen once. This is why when He died that cruel Roman death and was crucified for our sin and when God raised Him from the dead on the third day, that once again the “tree of life” was available for us to eat from, praise His glorious name!

This is why no man can come unto the Father but by the Son, Jesus Christ is the “tree of life”.

Now with that established the Apostle Paul’s lesson to us in Romans chapter 7 and 8 is simple. No other man but Christ could open the way for mankind to partake of the tree of life. If we find repentance in and through Him we in turn receive His Spirit, we are born again. A new beginning, we have now partaken of the tree of life and Christ has free us from our old bondage, sin! However as men we still have this knowledge of good and evil alive in us. We know to do well but we often fail. Why? - “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:14-17)

Even as Christians we still struggle with this on-going battle against sin but when we come to grips with this reality we find a freedom in depending upon His grace to get us through the day. Until then life is but a struggle.

We must forget to take on sin in the carnal man (naturally) as we will never win, it is impossible! This is why every minute of every day we must come with confidence to the throne room of grace to find assistance in and through the finished work of our risen Saviour to get us through the day. It is only when I relinquish relying on Him that I fail. This is a process and it will be an on-going (carrying something that is therefore readily accessible) saga.

When this becomes a reality then we too will echo these words; “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." – The Greek word for “easy” is Khrase-tos, is from the word employed, that is, (by implication) useful (in manner): - better, easy, good, gracious and kind. In other words Christ has made the way all we need to do is rest in Him and find grace to trust Him with our daily walk.

Signing off

Tyrone